Some things that were brought to my attention

First, driving around town yesterday we saw a rainbow up in the clouds on a day with no rain in sight.  The photo is poor, but you can see the circled diagonal streak that didn't translate from the magnificent colours that I tried to capture.

We took it as a sign of much needed hope.

I recently received an email from an organization (who will remain unnamed since they are now seeking less publicity) asking me to unlink a link in one of my blog posts  After a little investigation the link was in a post from almost three years ago and appeared in a spam comment which I had ignored.  I thought it was pretty ballzy for an organization to hire people to leave comments on blogs to link their business and then to demand their own thin sort of advertising be removed.  I found myself with an earworm of that old Monty Python song, "Spam".

And I'll leave you with my latest pet peeve which is reading things like "c if u"  and "b4" anywhere that isn't a text message or a tweet.  I'm really not as crabby as I sound.

Pet Peeve of the Week

Blog: So, Thursday, tell about your pet peeve.

Me: This started off much, much earlier this week and I'm glad I've had some time to cool and calm down a little. I am torn between trying to feel somewhat flattered and thinking that every line that will ever be drawn has already been drawn, every brush stroke that will ever be made has already been made. We are inspired by other people's art all the time. At least I am. And I am sometimes inspired to incorporate a little of it here and there. Like a colour or a shape or a theme.

Recently, working with a group of other artists, I shared one of my paintings. It wasn't a great painting but it was a deeply personal one. It spoke of an event that has had a part in making me who I am right now. A few days after sharing this painting, a group member shared one of her own which, as I saw it, was pretty much a duplicate of mine. The composition, the colours, most of the details. It was missing two small details and she qualified it with her own story behind it (very different from my story). At first I couldn't believe my eyes. It looked like my painting, re-painted by someone else. With some time to digest it, I realized what I really felt was violated. That someone took my story, and turned it into her story. Of course all of this went on in my head and not in reality. And naturally this other artist is not benefitting monetarily from the image. Still, deep in my heart, it feels like a robbery. It's childish, and I'm trying to not beat myself up for not being a better person about it. I have been working hard on non-attachment, who knew I would be so challenged to work on non-attachment to what is inside me at the same time? So, is it "stolen art" as I earlier wrote, or "stolen me"?

Pet Peeve of the Week

I've got a good one this week. I wasn't sure I was going to, but it kind of got under my skin yesterday. I'm addressing this to The Splashers out there, you know who you are. I understand your reasons for not sitting down on the seat, and why you choose to perch precariously while holding your clothes out of the line of fire. But my goodness what a mess you leave behind! Would you please, please swipe a bit of paper for the ones who come after you? Because frankly, it's disgusting. Don't get me started on the non-hand washers.

Now that I've got that off my chest I can tell you about the crow-fest we have every morning around 6:30. How many make a murder?

I don't know but I do know that these porkers can sit on a twig and not even bend it. That amazes me, it seems to defy physics. With so darned many in my yard, I had to see what Ted Andrews has to say about the crow's presence in my life. "Unexpected help with problems and obstacles is at hand to bring relief. Your magic is calling and it will be answered". That makes me liken them to Ganesha but somehow I can't see an elephant sitting on a tree top with the same finesse.

What I'm Not Going to Talk About

What I'm not going to talk about right now is what I was going to post as my pet peeve of the week. I'm not going to mention how I hit the roof last week at the post office, mailing off my OWOH packages. One to Canada at $11.65, the second to the U.S. at $4.95. Same box, same contents, same everything except it costs two and a half times to mail something within my own country than across the border. But I'm not going to talk about that. I'm going to talk about how I had promised to take Riley skiing again today. It's March break here and even though we've had weird melty kind of slushy snow fall from the sky, it was -19 last night which meant waking to cement snow. The sun was shining this morning and it was minus too much with the windchill, but we went anyway. And you know, I felt the same as the last time we skiied. That day I didn't want to go either because it was too cold but I had a great time and I remembered why I like cross country so much. Same for today. If only I had remembered to bring my camera.

Today it was just the two of us. There were a few other people on the trails, ones who were keeping a well kept secret - the conditions were much, much better than I expected and the wind was less in the trees. I noticed the buckets mounted on the maple trees as it's time for the sap to start running.

At the half way mark of our trail there is a cabane where we were going to stop for a drink of water and a granola bar but we found something better - maple syrup on the snow.

A little too sweet for me but the ritual of pouring it out in a line, waiting a couple of minutes for it to freeze, then rolling a popsicle stick over it to pick it up, the syrup mixing with snow crystals...It's a winter ritual here and today almost (almost) made me happy to be living here.

Shots all were taken with my cell phone which were impossible to see with such bright sunshine.

Back at the ranch, we had another guest - a repeat visitor.

Here, look a little closer, we'll zoom in. He's pretty well camouflaged, there is even a branch blocking out his eyes but I would bet my last dollar he was seeing me loud and clear.

He seems to have made himself quite at home in our neighbourhood even though the crows aren't too pleased he has moved in.

How to end this near perfect day? A glass of chilled white wine, a hot bath, a solid sleep after our work out. And I'm not going to talk about the postal rates.

Special Edition

Pet Peeve and Friday

haiku, all rolled into one.

I often wonder

at the sheer lack of

imagination with spam.

Like, "Can I Trust You?"

"Viagra Discount!"

Now I have your attention:

"Penis Enhancement!"

How about this one:

"British Lottery Winner!!!!!!"

Or, "Money Transfer."

There's, "Urgent Reply!"

and then, "Respectfully Yours"

or, "Get Back to Me".

Do the spammers think

that we are so gullible?

Oh, give me a break.

Sometimes I laugh at

the grammatical errors.

Dear email spammers,

take your "Loan Offer"

(Strictly Confidentially)

and go for a hike

Dearest, Urgently

and most Respectfully Yours,

The Bodhi Chicklet

Pet Peeve of the Week

This week's pet peeve is cheese grater toilet paper. You know the kind: one-ply, so thin you can see through it, if you try laying it down on the seat it blows off as you lower yourself down and it's completely non-absorbent so you are left with your water running down your own hand as if you wiped with a board. Just saying.